The Lost Seven
by ActuallyRedEyes
Summary: The Millennium World ended in failure, and the race for the Pharaoh's name with it. With the true dark master Zorc Necrophades resurrected and the spirit of the Puzzle cut off from his vessel and banished into the unknown beyond, only the Item-bearers possess the ability to fight back the darkness. Those who remain have only two options: rebel, or be enslaved. Friend-squad centric.
1. Gaol of the Unknown

A/N: an intro of sorts

This story actually requires a bit of an explanation. It started from a brainstorming session regarding apocalypse-based stories and what might happen if the Pharaoh were to lose in his final battle against Dark Bakura and how that could affect him and his friends. It also serves as a contrast between Atem's experience on Millennium World (which was focused primarily on the past and him personally) and the main squad. The story builds off of that and potential hosts for the other Millennium Items, using my own character analyses. Unlike a good number of my other ideas, this one uses implicitly only manga canon context.

Beside the focus on the five friends, there will be some pairings (colored from my personal preferences naturally), all of which be pretty slow burn to account for characterization.

Without further ado...

* * *

 **4:00 AM-**

 **...**

Ryou Bakura was out of the loop when he woke up. He remembered the sensation of that second soul-the malicious Spirit that had been the cause of so many blackouts-edging in on his consciousness, and there had been a struggle, a fight over possession of what rightfully belonged to him. But that other Bakura was relentless, and used the bottomless well of coldness in the Ring to seal him in darkness, from which he was only aware of what the Spirit wanted. He was playing a game, and like any game that played by hands Ryou lost control of, the lives of people he cared for rested in the balance.

Pushing against the walls of his subconscious prison afforded him impressions, snippets of knowledge that painted a vague picture of what was happening on the outside. A diorama of an ancient city sprawled before him, familiar to him, but Ryou only remembered the barest snatches of his hands putting the pieces together. Yugi–the Pharaoh, he amended–was sitting across from him, teeth grit in anger and determination. Muffled words slipped across the mental barrier, but they made little sense, and he was still trying to find out where the rest of his friends were.

Fading in and out of blackness as the Spirit kept angrily smothering him again and again, Ryou still managed to catch a sight that made his stomach turn in knots of confusion and shock. Sharp, violet eyes widened in despair, and the demon's vicious laugh spilled from Ryou's lips as the spiky-haired figure choked and hunched over in his chair, the Millennium Puzzle strung above releasing a dull glow. He caught a blurry sight of pounding feet and heard a shout of alarm, before the form of the indomitable gamer twisted and vanished into nothingness.

The blackness returned for a some time, and then there was a wave of pain greater than anything he'd felt before, almost like someone was shearing him in half. Between that there were dreams, and distorted howls of pain that belonged to someone other than himself, but he couldn't decide whether they were real screams or just imagined by his wandering mind. But when the sensation passed, the next time when Ryou woke up for real, he felt like a drowning man who'd been pulled to the surface. Coughing and sputtering as he waiting for the spinning in his head to fade, he still felt the euphoric realization that he was truly alone in his own mind. Nothing exerted its influence on him, and Ryou momentarily celebrated before the implications hit him.  
The Spirit simply wasn't there.

So where was he?

Sitting up onto his knees, the young man found himself in a dark, concrete room furnished with nothing but a cot and toilet, musty and closed in by metal bars. It was mirrored by an identical cell across the hall, markedly similar to a row of cells from what he'd think to find in a jail. _'Maybe that's where I am,'_ Ryou considered, but he couldn't think of a reason why he'd be there, unless the "other Bakura" thought it would be amusing to frame him for murder.  
Speaking of…

Ryou hand traveled down, tracing the golden Ring still hanging freely around his neck, shiny, metal…and empty. He could still feel power from it, but the awareness that never faded since the first day he'd heard the Spirit after meeting Yugi so long ago was gone. He shook it experimentally, the prongs clattering against each other with a warm chime.

…Still nothing.

But if Ryou's unwanted tenant wasn't in the Ring, and what he'd seen before slipping into unconsciousness was true, then he must be out somewhere causing more horrors. Something had to be done…no, he had to do something. And Ryou suspected the key to doing so was the Ring around his neck.

He laid the Item flat in his palm and tried to concentrate on the sense of power he'd felt before. Yugi told him once he could control the Puzzle when he needed it, tapping into its abilities to shift control of his body or enter the Puzzle itself. Ryou didn't care if it was just instinct or not, but he pressed his fingers into the Millennium Ring and asked it to help him. _'I want to leave.'_ He wasn't sure if a few seconds or a few minutes had passed before one of the prongs trembled and rose from its prone position to point resolutely at the lock sealing the door before him.

Unsure, but curious as to its purpose, Ryou rose to his feet carefully, pausing to loosen out the kinks in his numb legs. Stepping over to the door, he passed the hand holding the Ring through the bars and pressed the tip of the pointing prong into the keyhole, willing it to do something to help.

Slowly, the golden tip wiggled back and forth, prodding into the walls of the lock with the light clinking noises of metal on metal. Ryou wasn't sure if the protrusion was the right size or shape to pick the lock correctly, and it wasn't as though he made of habit of any kind of lock-picking in the first place. But before he could doubt any more, an audible crack sounded from the lock and he pulled the Ring away reflexively. He let go of the Item to pull at one of the bars, and found the door sliding open under his touch. The Ring might have broken the lock completely for that kind of reaction.

Regardless the door was open now, and the Ring came to life again, pointing leftward down the hall of cells. Clutching it close, Ryou stepped through the bars and slid them shut quietly behind him, following the steady guidance of his Millennium Item, which wavered and dipped every now and then but otherwise did not alter its course.

But as he walked, Ryou began to see other people in some of the cells. Some were asleep and others didn't seem to notice him pass, while a few looked right through him as though the boy wasn't there at all. It was a disquieting feeling and he wondered whether they'd even react at all if he called out. Not only that, but all the lights were either dimmed or smashed out completely; here and there he spotted rubble and what looked to be scorch marks discoloring the walls. The air was stale and uncomfortably chilly, making him somewhat thankful for the black coat that flapped around his knees. Something was very wrong with this place.

Plus, he hadn't yet heard or seen a single guard.  
Shouldn't they be patrolling the cells?

When the young man came to a crossroads–an ID checkpoint of some sort–the Ring continued pointing onward, but the moment he took another step, it glowed and shifted directions to the right instead, stiff and unwavering. Ryou shifted, staring at the Ring in confusion; that definitely wasn't the way out, and he could tell by the checkpoint alone. He'd assumed it was leading him out, and that was what Ryou had asked it to do, but the Item apparently had other ideas. The smarter thing to do would be to leave, but there was something the Ring wanted him to find here and he was too curious not to pursue it.

It was good that he made up his mind when he did, for he could hear a growling noise from the direction he'd come from, too coarse and monstrous to be human.

Ryou didn't waste any time, picking up his pace until he came to another set of barred doors and a sign hanging above reading 'Solitary Confinement.' Something about this section made him uncomfortable, whether it was just the atmosphere, the unpleasant smell lingering in the air, or something else entirely.  
Whatever it was, he raised the Ring to the lock just as before, and the searching prong seemed to move faster now. Either Ryou was beginning to get the hang of this, or the Item was becoming more insistent as it drew closer to its goal. Another similar crack and Ryou moved on.

Another line of cells faced him then, over a dozen, spaced further apart and sealed with simple metal doors instead of bars. One of them was ajar, and Ryou pushed it further open to reveal a room no better off than the one he'd woken up in. But it was...smaller, colder, and windowless. Ryou shuddered without realizing it and stepped away.

But he allowed himself to be lead further down the hall to the door that the Ring was so fixated on. It didn't look any different from the others, but Ryou's need to find out what the Item was drawn to overrode his lingering sense of concern.  
The final cell was, naturally, locked shut. But Ryou pulled up the Ring again and willed it to _'open,'_ hoping that this was the last time he'd have to do this. When the familiar crack sounded from the lock, he thought he heard movement from the other side of the barrier, but ignored his misgivings and opened the door anyway.

As dim as the hallway was, light flooded into the cell, and Ryou recognized the figure inside almost instantly in spite of everything. "Honda-kun!" Hiroto Honda had his head down and arms crossed, slumped against the wall messily, but when Ryou stepped into the cell, recognition flooded across his face.  
Ryou, for his part, was shocked to take in his condition. The other boy's clothes were more worn than he remembered and the uniform jacket was missing entirely, and he stank of soot; had he been in a fire? But most notable was the mass of bandages covering about half of his face, the oddly-angled wrapping and clump of unused leftovers left at his feet implying Honda had done so by himself.

"Bakura? You were able to get out? No, forget that, you finally woke up?" His voice was hoarse and quiet, lines of exhaustion etched across his face. What happened to him?

"Yes…how did you know I was asleep?" Ryou subtly traced his hand across the surface of the Ring, noting that the center prong was pointing directly at his friend.  
 _Why…_

Honda clenched his fists tightly, "It was 'him,' that demon. The one that used to be in that Ring," and also the one who locked them both up in this jail. Honda didn't actually say it out loud, but the implication was obvious, but it didn't explain what had happened to everyone else. Or why Honda was locked up deep in solitary while Ryou was dumped on the other side of the building in a relatively ordinary cell.  
Somehow that seemed significant, but Ryou couldn't think of why. At least, not enough to want to bring it up quite yet.

"Where's Yugi-kun and the others? I remember playing–seeing him play–some kind of game with the Pharaoh, but I didn't see anyone else. Are they also somewhere in this place? And…" His voice trailed off, thinking of the stale air, the empty-eyed inmates and the tiredness that was so present in the gaze of his friend. "And…how long has it been since then?"

Honda's face tightened into a pained grimace and looked away. "No, they're not here. And hopefully, they're miles away, where 'he' can't find them." He sighed and leaned back against the wall, "I played decoy so Yugi could escape with the Puzzle, but it…didn't really go the way I planned. Things got…complicated after that game. I can give you the short version of the story now, but I'd rather get out of this place first, before that he comes back. As for time, I'm…not sure how long its been since then, its hard to measure time in this place. But, if I had to guess from when I get brought food down here…probably about two weeks, maybe more."

Ryou grew still as the shock set in. _Two weeks?!_

That's how long he'd been asleep? Now he knew they had to get out, as soon as possible. But something was still bothering him. And he had to confirm it before they went anywhere.  
"I hadn't realized so much time had passed. But I'm getting out of here, and you're coming with me." Honda nodded and pressed his hands against his knees to rise to his feet, but didn't get far before Ryou was prodding at the bandages on his face. The taller boy backed away, but it wasn't as though he had much room to move in the small cell. "Please hold still, I need to take a look at your wound–"

"Its not necessary! Besides, its gross anyway, you wouldn't want to see it," Honda said it sharply, and Ryou suspected he was grasping at straws, because it felt too much like a lie. And Honda was a terrible liar. The bandages were loose, dry, and not even slightly discolored, which meant nothing was bleeding. Honda probably could have pushed him off easily, but he didn't make much of a move beyond freezing in place with another insistence that he shouldn't see it.

"Honda-kun, you should know that's not going to stop me, don't you…" He trailed off as the bandages fell off in his hands, catching a brief glance at the uncovered eye before Honda quickly brought up his hand to shield it. Or rather, where his other eye should have been.

He laughed weakly, looking resolutely in the other direction, "I told you it was gross, didn't I?"

Ryou didn't immediately reply, now very much aware of why his Ring had so determinedly led him here. Where a brown iris should have been was a much colder Eye, made of shiny gold.

The Millennium Eye.


	2. And Then There Were Three

A/N: I remember neglecting to post this chapter for quite some time when I thought it was too short and couldn't come up with anything legitimate to lengthen it. I mean, a chapter two that's about as long as the intro? Madness. Well that's just me.

As far as I can tell, the Eye is the only Millennium Item that requires a physical sacrifice in order to be used and is proven to impose a heavy strain on its user. Of course the real issue is that Honda doesn't know how to control it in the slightest and rejected it wholesale (at this point anyway), which is where the detriment _really_ comes from. Contrasted with Ryou's Ring, which he's had years to acclimate to-even if he doesn't fully understand its workings-and is now lacking the second soul that haunted it before. Although its not _safe_ , its relatively _benign_ next to the Eye.

This isn't even dealing with the other ones yet either.

Anyway, while the actual "summoning" of Zorc will be touched on a little later, first for some all-important backstory.

* * *

 _Twenty-Four Days Earlier:_

The sky was black, almost entirely obscured by coal-dark clouds that seemed to only be growing in size. It all originated from a notable center, the "eye of the storm," directly where the Domino city museum used to be, now blotted out by voluminous waves of darkness and rubble spinning in a slow, perpetual tornado. Thick smog billowed from above it to form the ever-increasing dark clouds above, spreading to the outskirts of Domino city and further still, destined to encroach everything if left unchecked. When the darkness fell, the birds were the first to flee, disappearing into the horizon as the first shadows trailed across the sky.

With the all-consuming encroachment, signals were lost with it, thousands of phones falling dead and useless. Electricity didn't last any longer either; it didn't take much until Domino was left in complete silence but for the rising panic of the people that lived within it. The rest of the world was as yet ignorant, confused and unaware of what inevitably was coming to pass under the cover of black clouds.

But they wouldn't remain unaware for too long. Because it was certain that the instigator even intended to cover the whole world the same way.

And then "they" came, monsters slipping out of the blackness in droves, more vicious and horrifying than their card equivalent or holograms could possibly entail. Some grew quiet and distant, others fought among each other, and yet still others looked down upon the unprepared humans and saw an easy hunt. There was no way of knowing how far they had ventured, beyond Domino, or beyond the reaches of Japan itself. But there was no time to spare concern for other countries or what they may be facing, not when Japan was "ground-zero," and for the most part the wave would not spread until they were well and truly crippled.

The only hope people had was that the monsters could be killed, but that task was never easy to accomplish, not when even some of the smaller beasts had the resilience of a bear. Under constant shadow, living became a matter of hunter versus the hunted.  
And not just between man and monster either.  
As supplies began to run low or tempers began to flare, the survivors lost their composure and turned upon each other, suddenly too caught up in self-interest or self-preservation. Some people began to band together, either to watch out for and protect each other, or as significantly more violent clans to attack others and get a leg up in a steadily crumbling world.

Even now though, there had to be hope.

Or at least, that's what the small group of loyal friends told themselves, even after everything they'd seen. Even after they witnessed the beginning of this whole calamity, and shared a sense of guilt of being unable to prevent it. Before the clouds reached the outskirts of the city, before the true beginning of the end, when the populace had not yet seen the worst of what their failure had wrought, four friends were still reeling from the catastrophic loss they had suffered at the hands of an ancient enemy.

Yugi saw that moment repeated in his mind over and over again constantly, that dark spirit's victorious laugh echoing off the walls as he delighted in their pain, and the sight of his nemesis defeated after so long. Of seeing the friend bound to Yugi's very soul mouth the words of an apology, and getting the chance to take just one last look into his eyes before he vanished into nothingness. The pain and defeat in his eyes was all too real, and it echoed in his brain long after the fact. Yugi had no time to prepare, no reason to suspect that his other's loss would end in this way.  
He couldn't stifle his scream in that moment, nor the tears that followed it, and it now with the memory–the experience so close at hand–the pain threatened to reduce him to that state yet again. There was no option other than to bite back his sadness, force the ache down into the pit of his stomach, and stay alive.

He had protested when they chose to flee, actually they all had in their own way–at the time there was no choice other than to leave Bakura behind somewhere in that darkness, and no matter how much they hated it, there was nothing they could have done. They had tried-with everything they had-to save him, only to meet with failure when the monster came and drove them out. Fifty pairs of eyes between them and Bakura, and an even more innumerable number of teeth.

And it was all the fault of the _'other Bakura,'_ the Spirit of the Millennium Ring.

But "spirit" was no longer an accurate term to describe what he was now, rising in tandem with the enigmatic horror of the ancient past.

Yugi cradled the Puzzle from its chain–cool to the touch and so dreadfully silent and far too empty–and couldn't help but wonder if only he was a little bit faster, this wouldn't be happening. If he had just gotten to the tombs first…had found the Pharaoh's name before… But he hadn't, and now the faithful spirit was gone to who knows where. it was his job to help and support his other self in that fight and he failed. _Was this all his fault?_ Yugi's hands tightened around the Puzzle until the golden edges dug painfully into his fingers and unknowingly slowed his steps enough for the others to notice and turn back.

"Yugi!" And Jounouchi was at his side, urging him onward with a hand on his shoulder and a pained glance at the Millennium Item, "We don't have long until those monsters catch up to us!" He scanned the streets, panicked people running from the descending darkness. It was bright out before, midday. The rapidly advancing black clouds cast a shadow over them faster than any of them could run. In a few hours, it would have covered all of Domino. But, where were they supposed to go? "Dammit, where are we going to go to throw them off?" Taking shelter in a home was out of the question; however sturdy the house, it likely wouldn't last long against ravenous monsters, and dragging some other innocent person into it was unacceptable.

"That's it," Honda froze in place and the others shot him a questioning look, "we need to go below ground. Get out of open air, we're too easily tracked up here." of course, the subway line! Most the beasts wouldn't be able to follow them in such tight quarters, not to mention the network might give them an opportunity to shake off pursuit. There was guarantee the lines were even running anymore, but at least they would have some cover for the time being.

There was no more time to debate the matter as the howls of the pursuit behind them and the answering call of the screams of people who had seen it cut off any lingering doubts. Anzu led the way, her face a mask of worry as the lights in buildings all around them flickered and shut off in a continuous wave, until the only thing to see by was the dim glow filtering through the blanketing clouds. An eternally overcast sky, but worse. "Why are they chasing us?" Anzu bit out, her voice strained as she tried to restrain a tremble of fear. Her natural grace faltered somewhat in the darkness, stumbling for just a moment over a crack in the road, unseen as their eyes still struggled to adjust to the low light. And as the darkness spread, it was only getting darker.

"Probably that damn spirit, trying to do us in for good," Honda muttered, trailing behind to cover their backs, dark eyes straying to every alley or corner as if waiting for some creature to come rushing out at them. Yugi eyed his knuckles for a moment, barely able to see the blueish bruising in the gloom, a souvenir from his attempt to stop the Ring's Spirit from completing his final, terrible resurrection. He wanted to ask if it still hurt, but instead crashed to a halt into Jounouchi's back when the other boy stopped in front of him.  
Jounouchi righted him with a 'you alright?' and indicated the descending stairwell in front of them.

They made it.

But when Yugi moved up to the steps, he winced as a yawning blackness awaited them further down. Anzu nodded, equally concerned as to the destination, "The lights turned out down here too. We'll have to be very careful not to fall…"

She trailed off as Jounouchi stepped down first before anyone could stop him, one hand keeping a hold on the rail, "I'll go first then, and don't worry about falling, I'll catch you." Despite Anzu's warnings and Yugi's shout to be careful, he took the stairs two at a time, disappearing into the underground until Yugi could just barely distinguish Jounouchi's silhouette from the surrounding area. "Alright, its clear down here, come on!" He and Anzu followed after somewhat slower, cautious of the way the edges of the steps grew indistinct and feeling their way to stop from stumbling forward. It was only after Yugi reached level ground that he realized that Honda was still at the top of the stairwell, hesitating and noticeably unsure. Jounouchi couldn't wait for him whatever was bothering him though, "Get down here, you baby. I thought the subway was your idea?"

"Well, _I'm sorry_ ," Honda picked up the pace, casting on last glance behind him before they all plunged into the underground. Eventually, Yugi was about to keep his bearings as his eyes began to adjust, but only enough tell where his friends and the walls were. "There might be a working emergency generator further in, which means light, but…" Honda lowered his voice, quickly becoming aware of how much better the acoustics were in the sub line. "Some of those monsters might follow us here, so watch out."

Yugi nodded, then realizing no one could probably see him, murmured a soft 'ok' instead. At first, Honda's plan seemed to be working, as Yugi didn't hear anything from behind them like more monsters. Of course, daring to slow down too much or make just a bit too much noise could change that in an instant. Barely daring to make a sound, the close quarters made an already oppressive silence even worse as they walked, until the next set of stairs. The distance seemed shorter this time, but with even less light than before, they had to be even more careful. Again, Jounouchi took the lead, but there was a involuntary gasp of surprise as he reached the bottom that brought Yugi back to alertness. "Watch out, there's some broken glass lying down here. Keep to your left…" Almost on cue, just as Anzu started the descent, an inhuman growl echoed from somewhere down the hall, inciting her into a much faster pace. Yugi followed her as fast as he could manage without slipping on what might as well be invisible steps, still able to keep his footing. But a moment later there was a heavy thud behind him and an odd crunch like the snap of something brittle. "Honda-kun? Are you alright?"

"Honda? Speak to me man, I can't see shit down here," Jounouchi sounded like he was trying not to show it, but the worry was thick in his voice, especially as more wild echoes sounded from above.

The sounds of shifting cloth and more crunching noises answered him then, "I'm…alright. Just landed wrong, that's all."

"Don't scare us like that!" Anzu chided as they kicked it into motion again, trying to make tracks away from where the monsters were getting steadily closer. But soon enough, there was a light waiting for them at the end of the tunnel, literally in fact. The darkness abated further up ahead, giving way to buzzing florescents that would have been noticeably dim if they had real daylight to compare them to.

With the availability of light, Yugi could see an open emergency door through which a long hall extended. Through there they could move faster and lose the monsters with light to guide them by. The only downside was that the lock on the other side was sparking and broken, meaning that they couldn't close the door behind them. Of course, Yugi didn't immediately see the significance of that, more concerned with the path on the other side.  
But as they got a certain distance down the hall, the lack of one set of footsteps and a pained voice stopped them all in their tracks and spin around in shock. "Sorry guys, but this is as far as I go."

Honda was still standing a good ways back, just before the open door, his expression locked into that of a pained grimace. "What the hell are you-" Jounouchi froze mid-sentence, realizing the same thing that the others had in that moment. Starting from his right knee, a red stain was spreading slowly downward, and glints of light reflected off of transparent shards embedded in his knee. _The glass!_ "You idiot! Why didn't you say anything?" Too angry and upset to keep his voice down, Jounouchi's shout echoed off the walls, and the noises of their pursuers grew even louder.

Honda shifted his weight and backed up further, bracing one hand against the outer wall. He jerked his thumb behind him as the growing cacophony, "Those monsters will be here any second, I can't run any more and none of you are going to escape if you have to deal with me slowing you down!" A moment's pause was all that he needed to continue, "I'll…buy you just a little bit of time, hopefully," His face curved into a resigned smile, and the only thing Yugi could think about was that this had happened before and his mind was screaming _'no, not again!'_  
It was too familiar, too harsh. And this time there was no one on the other side to bail him out.

And Jounouchi realized what Honda was going to do and stalked towards him in a rush, "Don't you fucking dare-!"  
But he was a few seconds too late, and the door swung forward and slammed shut in his face. Jounouchi pounded on the barrier furiously, losing interest in caution for the sake of his friend, "Dammit Honda, open this door now! Don't do this!" Anzu and Yugi rushed forward to help, but there was really nothing they could do. There was no handle on the metal surface and all the pushing they tried did nothing to move the blockage. They might as well have been trying to move a mountain. With every moment that passed, the roars and crashes from the other side grew louder and louder until it was the only thing they could hear.

When something clawed into the door like nails on chalkboard, Jounouchi backed away rapidly as if physically stung, his eyes wide with panic and hopeless desperation. Then it sunk in and though the thought took only a second to process, the instant seemed to last for ages under the weight of it. The knowledge of what had likely happened on the other side made him bolt, Yugi and Anzu right on his heels.

Eyes wet, unable to accept that their circle had so quickly been cut in half.

And then, from their eyes, there were only three.


	3. Out of the Frying Pan

A/N: This chapter offers its first look at Zorc's chosen form, in all their (worrisome) glory, and probably raises more questions in the process as well. They're supposed to be sufficiently intimidating, and hopefully this chapter establishes that before he gets really unpleasant. The situation with Zorc is...interesting. I wonder who will be the first to guess what their speech patterns point to.

On another note, writing Honda's perspective is...incredibly easy for me, probably because I relate to him a lot. But I have to switch gears from him for a while because plot.

Last thing; this chapter has a warning for eye trauma.

Yeah, this is when that happens.

* * *

Even now Honda couldn't regret the decision to use the subway line to escape, despite all the setbacks and his own misconceptions, it was still the best way to get his friends to safety. Or maybe it wasn't that he didn't regret the decision, but that even after looking back on everything they did, he couldn't remember where exactly they went wrong to begin with.  
There should have been some "one moment" to blame this all on, but there wasn't. And there was no rewind button.

Honda knew from the moment he stood at the first set of descending stairs that he was taking a big risk, walking a flight of stairs with a busted hand threw off his balance in the darkness. Maybe he should have been thinking more clearly when he struck the Ring Spirit in the museum–or whatever kind of power mad abomination he had become now–but it was only because of that distraction that they were able to escape with the Puzzle. But there was always a possibility that they could fail, and Honda wasn't willing to let his friends take the fall for his idea.

Literally or otherwise.

With the glass he was more worried about the others, particularly Yugi, though it turned so differently. All it took was one misstep to throw him off, the still throbbing hand he hovered above the handrail did very little to slow him down, dropping the last few steps to land heavily on his hands and knees. Jounouchi was dead serious about the glass; Honda bit down into his lower lip hard enough to break skin as several shards sliced up into his right leg and stuck in place. "Honda-kun?" Yugi's concerned voice murmured through the darkness and he wasn't sure what to do, or how to reassure them. Trying to stand just didn't work no matter how hard he tried–the largest glass obstruction just seemed to work its way in deeper the more he tried to straighten out his leg–and with monsters on their heels, Honda didn't see any other option but to take it out… _'I don't have anything to wrap the wound with,'_ His fingers wrapped hesitantly around the offending piece and worked it out slowly–trying not to make the cut even worse than it already was–while Jounouchi called out to him, a subtle hitch to his voice telling Honda that he didn't have much time left before his friend turned back. _'Goddammit, this hurts a lot more than I thought it would…'_ He pulled the shard all the way out and tossed it aside as he carefully rose to his feet, all too aware of the blood dribbling sluggishly down his leg.

Sliding his feet along the ground to sweep aside the glass in his path, Honda leaned heavily on his uninjured leg and took a deep breath to work the strain out of his throat before replying, "I'm…alright. Just landed wrong, that's all." It wasn't…entirely a lie, but he didn't know what else to do, not when they still had to keep moving.

He wasn't sure what they would have done if the lights were on, if they were able to see the shards embedded in his leg before, but Honda wasn't interested in entertaining the possibility when blades of pain sliced into him with every step. _'F-fuck…how much further?'_ Keeping his silence was the hardest part, even with his teeth firmly clamped together to silence any involuntary gasp, and he could hardly believe it wasn't as obvious for the others as it was for him. The faintest scent of iron was drifting into their surroundings, something that would have been so much more obvious in the stale underground air were it not for the pulse of adrenaline guiding them onward. Surely there had to be a giant sign above his head, announcing to the world his crippling injury.

The door was the final straw, on top of pain and restricted movement and the blood trail he was undoubtedly leaving for the monsters following them. The nail in the coffin was that Honda felt he was making it far too easy, too easy for them to be hunted down and killed while he left a path for the monsters to track. Because even if he tore out all that was left of glass he could find without regard to personal injury and bolted for it until they found somewhere he could patched himself up, there was still the blood trail and there was still no guarantee that he could run like that. And Honda couldn't–wouldn't–put his friends' lives on the line on what was little more than a guess, he wasn't that impulsive.

 _'This feels…familiar…'_ Honda slowed his steps, trailing his fingers down for just a moment to the dark, wet spot staining his knee, a shuddering breath passing his lips as the pieces fell into place. 'The door…it can be locked from this side…' It wasn't a solution, or even much of a plan, but it was the only thing he had.  
The catch was that someone had to stay behind in order to do it.

And, there was only one option as to who that should be.

So he stopped on the threshold, shifting his weight for even an ounce of relief, while the other three kept running on. Driven by desperation and fear, maybe they wouldn't notice until after Honda had… No, he had to look them in the eye, face what he was doing, even if doing so was certain to hurt like hell. "Sorry guys, but this is as far as I go," And the reaction was almost instantaneous, as the three nearly skid to a halt and whirled around to face him. The flickering illumination reflected off the small shards embedded in him, and the wet trail seeping from his leg was all too obvious, an injury he was no longer capable of hiding from them.

Jounouchi rounded on him first of course, confused panic flashing across his face and any interest towards silence was thrown out the window, "You idiot! Why didn't you say anything?" The echo sounded down the tunnel, and Honda felt the ground rumbling beneath his feet as the footsteps from behind grew ever nearer. There wasn't much time left, not nearly enough for him to say everything that he wanted to say.

 _'I'm sorry…I guess I made the wrong choice. I wish we could just undo all of this.'_

Honda needed to make them run away and save themselves, but he knew full-well that his friends wouldn't leave someone behind unless they had no other choice. It was something he valued a great deal, but in order to save them, he'd have to fight the instinct back, "Those monsters will be here any second, I can't run any more and none of you are going to escape if you have to deal with me slowing you down!" Honda hesitated, feeling several different kinds of pain weighing him down.

He could barely meet the horrified faces of his friends, unable to soften his words or pull back, and how each one of them was both incredibly special and irreplaceable. Anzu, who kept the rest of them in line and had the sharpness to fight with her words instead of just fists. Yugi, whose courage and spirit outshone them all. And Jounouchi…  
 _'You were like a brother to me…'_

No time left, they were right on his heels, "I'll…buy you just a little bit of time, hopefully."

"Don't you fucking dare!–" Jounouchi bolted for the door to stop him, and Honda slammed the door hard before the other boy could reach him, pressing his weight against it heavily until he heard the busted lock snap into place. Now for the electronic lock; chances were his pursuers didn't know how to open it but he wasn't willing to take the chance. Honda stepped back and smashed his heel into the plastic casing surrounding the keypad until it cracked, unhinging it enough for him clamp his aching fingers tightly around it and tear it from the wall.

Jounouchi was pounding on the door but Honda couldn't open it now, even if he had wanted to. Besides, he was too distracted by how the hall behind him was suddenly, dreadfully silent. Honda paused to take a deep breath and turned around, and just as he had expected, dozens of coldly glittering eyes were peering out at him from the darkness. Some of them were familiar, but others he couldn't recognize. Monsters both animalistic and humanoid, small enough to fit inside the cramped tunnels, but still too dangerous and large in number for any normal human to handle.  
Out of his league at any rate.

Honda curled his hands into fists, growling out a challenge, "Come get me you ugly bastards."  
In an explosion of roars and howls, the beasts surged towards him and Honda ran to meet them. He didn't bother to worry about tactics anymore except in the case of doing the most damage possible, or the painful injuries that he would have suffered on if he hadn't already come to the conclusion the monsters were likely going to kill him there. And with every strike, it seemed that little he did could actually hurt them in any noticeable way or give them pause, but he couldn't say that he hadn't expected that to be the case. The only thing that was important was protecting the door for as long as possible, until his friends were far enough away that they couldn't be tracked anymore, even if he had to tear himself apart in order to do it. When one lizard-like creature clawed at the entry, rather than land a blow that may not even move it, Honda compromised and stopped it by slamming his full weight into the beast's side to force it to the ground.  
It was dangerous and reckless, but given the circumstances, it was best to go all out.

But it was quickly becoming clear that something about the monsters' behavior was strangely off, even with how little he knew about their nature, especially when they hesitated just for a moment instead of charging in or neglecting to inflict the finishing blow. Attacks were directed towards his legs for the most part and unless they were lured by the smell of blood, it meant they were trying to trip him up.  
They were holding back. But why?

It didn't take very long for him to find out.

In the end it was his own injuries working against him that stopped Honda in his tracks, rather than anything the monsters themselves did, though with their reluctance to strike it wasn't completely unexpected. It was just one small mistake, a misstep. The still-wet trail of his own blood proving to be his undoing as Honda's heel slid forward several inches into it without his notice, and stumbled just long enough to be blind-sided by the blunt force that struck him across the back of the head. Vision spinning wildly, Honda lost his balance and crumpled to the ground, howling out in pain as the impact further jarred an already red soaked knee. Instinctively rolling onto his side to take off the pressure, Honda braced his hands against the ground as shadows fell over him from behind as blackness gathered around his eyes, claws reaching out.  
He was just barely conscious when they dragged him away.  
~

* * *

Honda was willing to bet that not dying was going to be the biggest surprise of the day at this point, even in the face of impending apocalypse, but he was a natural pessimist after all.  
The throbbing ache in his limbs and head immediately clued him in that something had gone well outside his expectations, and honestly didn't know whether to be relieved about it or not, not when he knew precisely who was behind the monsters. Though surprisingly enough, he was in less pain than before. Honda opened his eyes to find himself out of the tunnels, under an oppressive wave of black clouds and cool air that rose up goosebumps on his arms. Dim flickers of light filtering through just enough to see, like night under a full moon. There were no people in sight.

Not that there would be, with the beasts that had him in tow. Claws were wrapped around his wrists uncomfortably tight and Honda yanked at them angrily as he was dragged, but the small movement took a massive effort and earned him nothing but a growl of warning. When fighting any further didn't yield any results other than continued dizziness, he began to wonder just how much blood he'd lost, and glanced down to find that his injured right leg was covered in a pseudo-cast made of some kind of sticky, gray gauze (webbing maybe?) through which he could feel little sensation at all. So at the very least, he wasn't going to bleed out, but still left the question of where exactly they were taking him.  
 _'Nowhere good, that's for sure.'_  
Their destination was not–as he suspected at first–the museum where this mess all started (surrounded now by a wall of black too dense to see through), but a rectangular gray building surrounded on all sides by busted, steel fencing. Domino City Jail; Honda instantly felt more insulted than intimidated at the implications. The monsters didn't bother to slow down, flowing into the premises until they arrived in a wide open area within the confines filled to the brim with other monsters, the Yard.

But Honda wasn't focused on them, but rather the lone figure standing in the center of them all, mostly human in form but for the clawed wings pressed tightly against his back. The open, dark cloak flapped around his ankles, streaked with bolts of violet and held in place with shiny black pauldrons. A tail tipped with a fanged snake's head flitted around his ankles, producing a hiss that filled the otherwise silent air. Scarlet eyes watched him from under a mane of wild gray hair, an all too familiar sneer splitting his lips, standing there with arrogant poise like that of a despotic king. He also couldn't stop himself from being angry about the fact that the tanned face was completely unmarked from when Honda busted his knuckles against that unnaturally tough skin.  
The beasts forced Honda down to his knees before him, preventing even the slightest movement while what was once the spirit of the Millennium Ring approached with almost casual strides. "You've caused problems for us, boy," His voice was a sibilant hiss not unlike the snake drifting around his feet. "But as 'heroic' as you believe your sacrifice was, you've done nothing more than delayed the inevitable."

Honda glared at him for just a moment, seemingly not acknowledging his words at all, before turning his eyes away and scanning the Yard, searching for someone else and clenching his jaw in frustration, "Where is Bakura?"

The cold smile dropped from his captor's face the moment Bakura's name was mentioned, distaste filling his expression in an instant, "I think you should be more concerned over yourself, rather than my worthless former vessel."

Honda growled and renewed his struggle against his bonds, worry for the friend they'd lost in the museum taking over him, "I asked you a question, you fucking demon! Where is my friend? What have you done to him?" After getting separated from him before, he had no idea what had overtaken Ryou Bakura now, not after the expression on pain on his face when the Puzzle was seized to enact the final ritual. All the feeling of being unable to change anything, with a friend and enemy bound together, and now that it had been undone punishment was still out of reach. Honda resisted just a little bit longer before numbness and exhaustion caught up to him again, a hundred eyes watching him impassively.

"Demon hmm? That's something we haven't been called in a while… Incorrect, but there are few human words can describe us better…" A chill was sinking through the air, and Honda couldn't help but notice the disjointed use of the word _'we'_ and not for the first (or the last) time, wondered just what the hell he was dealing with here. He wasn't fully aware of how his heart sped up, and the increased surge of adrenaline pumping through him. Every natural being in the world had a fight or flight instinct, and now every unconscious force in his body was telling him to run. If only he could. "The _vessel_ is asleep, boy. But I don't care about him right now, the real issue on our mind is you," The being stepped closer, close enough that Honda could clearly hear (or rather, not hear) the lack of breath and the void of silence where a heartbeat should be. "I am the Spirit that tormented your friends, I am the undisputed King of thieves, I am the Priest chosen by darkness, we are Zorc Necrophades! And you? You're nothing but a child feigning an illusion of strength."

"I'm not afraid of you," Honda ground out, stubbornly ignoring the relentless pounding in his heart and the shaking in his fingers. It was an instinctual sensation, at its core no different from a hare facing the jaws of a wolf, but he would not admit it.

The demon laughed, unconcerned with the statement, if he even believed it, "We'll have to fix that, won't we?"

"You gonna kill me already, or keep bragging?" Honda shuddered slightly, his usual fallback of sarcasm falling just a little flat. To his surprise, the self-proclaimed Zorc stepped back, pulling something small from the folds of his cloak that glowed coldly in the low light. "Wait…isn't that–"

"Don't think you'll be getting out of this so easily, we have a much better role in mind for you," A set of clawed fingers were clutching an unmistakable sphere of shiny gold marked with an eye, "but look on the bright side…if you prove to be unworthy, it will grant that wish anyway." It was hard not to be reminded of the time when that Millennium Item was used to seal away lives with apparently as much effort as it took to blink. It was one of the accursed artifacts that had made his friends suffer and that was unacceptable. But what he was implying, what he was _suggesting…_

 ** _No._**

"Get that thing away from me!" The demon's sneer returned two-fold as Honda thrashed, trying to get as far away from that Eye as humanly possible. The iron-tight grip on his arms were joined by more at a gesture from his captor, claws dragging through his hair and pulling taut until he couldn't move at all.

Zorc hovered his empty hand above Honda's right eye, causing him to freeze into stillness, not wanting to risk even the slightest movement that would set him off. "Let me tell you a secret, boy. The truth is that the reason we considered you a viable option lies at the fault of your dear friend, Yugi Mutou. He was ignorant of the connections he'd formed, but that doesn't make him blameless, it is…after all, one of the most important powers of the Millennium Puzzle." The power of the Millennium Puzzle? Somehow, he was reminded of their strength of unity during the final battle with Pegasus…. "Unconscious? Perhaps, but the fact is that Yugi drew to him appropriate vessels we intend to use," The words struck home and brown eyes widened, and Honda was too busy coming to realization that he wasn't the only one at risk from the beginning to expect the next few words. "…Starting with you."

There was no time to react when sharp nails dug into his face, horror rushing his veins as he could feel fingers digging the eye out of his skull, mouth dropping open in a soundless scream. His other eye snapped shut, out of the last, desperate piece of his self-preservation trying to protect what he had left. He heard yelling but could not tell whether it was real or just in his head, but it was something to focus on besides the sickening feeling of the demon's claws severing the last connecting nerves. When the searching hand drew back—leaving an emptiness in its wake—Honda slumped forward bonelessly, the monsters' grip the only thing stopping him from collapsing completely as the shock of what just happened truly sunk in.

 _'He…took my eye…he…'_

Liquid was running down his face, but whether it was blood or otherwise, he couldn't bring himself to look. There was a laugh and Honda flinched as cold metal pressed against his face, "You probably would have preferred we chose one of the other Items. Apparently being too perceptive comes back to bite you, doesn't it, Hiroto Honda?" Then there was the inevitable pressure as the golden Eye was steadily forced into the empty socket, and he choked back another cry as it pressed hard against sore, broken flesh. Only when the Item was fitted securely into his skull did the hand pull away, watching him expectantly, "Now this is the fun part for you. Don't disappoint us now, boy."

But Honda couldn't hear the words any longer, not when a massive pain in his head and spinning vision was overtaking him. He wasn't even aware of how the restraining grip on him was gone until he'd fallen forward, hands pressed against his temples as the world spun and darkened.  
And then he was gone.

 _Honda was standing in a massive chamber of red brick and mortar pillars, intricate lines of hieroglyphics etched deeply into their surface. At his side were half a dozen white-robed individuals gathered around an immaculate throne of gold, each with a golden Millennium Item in their possession, and he knew their faces and recognized them. Including that of a young Pharaoh with familiar, spiked hair that instilled a frustration in him that he couldn't understand._ 'What is this? A vision…?' _Honda's hands were not his own, dark and weathered from decades of wear, and he was able to shake off the undeniable pull of the illusion at the sight._ 'This isn't real. The Eye's doing this to me,' _But in the next moment the emotions surged upward several times over, the force of anger and guilt, and the horror of an unforgivable sin. He dreamed of fire, the stench of smoke, and the glow of fresh gold fitted together from its most terrible ingredients. Just beneath their shining surface was the malevolent Shadow and its lurking corruption, but the Items' creator was certain that the ends justified the means. The echoes of guilt, anger and pain did not belong to him, but the feelings persisted regardless._

 _Before the vision could torture him further, it quickly vanished from his mind, only to be replaced with another one fast enough to leave him dizzy. More wary at what he might experience now, Honda prepared himself for something even more insidious, only to be surprised once again. Now he was in an elaborate ballroom that glowed in the light of suspended chandeliers, filled to the brim with people in expensive suits and sparkling gowns dancing hand in hand. Across the room was a beautiful girl with flowing blonde hair that fell in graceful waves over her shoulders, she smiled at him shyly and just for a moment, Honda couldn't help but remember the sight of a waving yellow ribbon. She danced with him smoothly, small hands linked together far too naturally to be coincidence, but he didn't get the opportunity to enjoy the moment before the scene changed again with a vertigo-inducing whirl. The teenage girl, blonde locks of hair trailing across her too-pale arms, was silent and dead. Her motionless body resting in a velvet-lined coffin as the sorrow threatened to swallow him whole._

The Eye and its trial came to an abrupt and jarring end, releasing him into a crumpled, agonized mess on the ground. He was still reeling from the aftershock of the alien memories and the lingering emotions therein, but still very much alive. Through a haze of awareness, Honda caught the last bits of an order issued above his head, "So he survived… Clean his injuries and place him in the cell we specified. We don't want our property dying before fulfilling his purpose." The slow scrape of claws, rustles of movement and, "We'll be speaking again very soon boy. Sleep well now…"  
~

* * *

A phone slammed down into its cradle with unnecessary force, as the young man finally lost his temper with the man on the other line, his breaths calming as he reigned his control back in. His white coat was rumbled from constant pacing and the radio installed under the iconic 'KC' insignia had seen too much use that day, most of those calls going unanswered. To put it simply, Seto Kaiba was a bit of a wreck, even if he went out of his way to avoid showing it.

To was just supposed to be a few weeks abroad to open up negotiations for another KaibaCorp branch in America, nothing more than business as usual. Some very lucrative business certainly, but nothing that should have caused his company any grief. Everything went fine for the first few days, with Isono wrangling the public relations and being his voice of diplomacy, while Seto himself focused on the more technical aspects when he couldn't be bothered to make a public appearance. But he couldn't be completely detached, not when he needed to make sure the home office was still running nice and smoothly in his absence.

Exactly five days into his trip, Seto lost communications with the Domino city head office.  
The resulting panic from the staff turned the work into a madhouse until Seto slammed his hands across the meeting hall table for silence, and reasoned that power had shorted somehow and all that was needed was to contact an out of company line.  
What he found was even worse than he expected. No matter who or where they tried to call anywhere in Domino, there was no response but a mocking dial tone that did nothing to answer rapidly building questions. The staff he brought with him were far too distracted and worried to work, and to be honest, Seto himself was edging into that territory as well. Soon after, Isono informed him that no one was able to reach anyone within mainland Japan, and Seto was infuriated to find that he couldn't discover the source of what he referred to as "rolling signal blackouts."

He came to the conclusion that he had to investigate what was going on personally, especially when news stations were beginning to get word that something was terribly wrong with Japanese signals. Even if it meant taking his jet and leaving alone.

Mokuba followed him to the launch pad, demanding to come with him, worried wide eyes that his brother couldn't look directly into. "We don't know what's happening over there, Mokuba. I won't take the risk. You're in charge until I return," He pulled himself into the cockpit of the custom jet, the younger Kaiba clutching at his coat until it was out of his reach. Neither of them knew what was happening, but a nameless fear stopped Seto from allowing his brother to tag along this time. Something was going to go wrong if he did. He didn't usually put much stock in "feelings" like this, but he still couldn't forget the visions from his Battle City and how real they felt. And how this warning sensation felt far too similar.

He ordered Isono to lead his brother away before starting up the engines, speeding from the launch pad in a burst of white.  
Time to find the source of the problems in his city.


	4. The Fallen Empire

_A/N: A bird's eye view of the situation_

* * *

For the longest time, there was nothing but the rumbling hum of jet engine filling the air, an empty journey with only the end goal as a determining factor. None of his collective doubts could shine light on what awaited in Domino city, no–all of Japan was placed under the same uncertainty. And one of the things that made him angriest were situations that he couldn't understand.

Seto Kaiba did not trust tales of monsters and always looked to a more realistic explanation, regardless of whether or not such a thing existed. But he had no leads on why his company was suddenly in turmoil.

So he didn't know what to expect, even less knew what to make of the wave of dark clouds filling the horizon directly in the path to his destination. They were deep and unnaturally thick, casting dark shadows across the ocean's surface that rippled and flowed. Storm clouds? But without the slightest trace of lightning or rain to make the title obvious, and while he didn't like the look of them at all, Seto didn't make a move to turn the jet around. He'd come this far and turning back now would be nothing short of counterproductive.

The white jet didn't slow before the rolling tide of black, vanishing into the strange weather without hesitation. "Shouldn't be long now…" Seto's flight path was predetermined as a straight shot to Domino's KaibaCorp building with no detours or turns, but he glanced at the control panel to find that several gauges had started to tremble and spin erratically, as though he'd flown into a radio jamming wave instead of mere clouds. It was impossible to accurately read the figures, let alone fix them while he was still airborne, and it was only getting worse with every second that passed. It now made sense why nobody outside of Japan knew what was going on; any plane entering the area wouldn't be able to easily get back out again, or right their course after getting turned around in the blanketing clouds.

His jet should be an exception, far and away a different breed of craft from the bulky commercial liners that required constant communication to keep their course straight, but Seto was pushing the limits of his tech by venturing so deep into the black banks. However, he should be reaching the end of open ocean by now, and the pilot decreased his speed and started to descend.

Strangely enough the clouds didn't immediately abate even after dropping well below the commercial flight altitude, and continued to swarm around the craft just as thickly as before. 'Something's wrong…' Seto didn't get much opportunity to think on it however, when a massive object lurched out of the clouds at him, so obscured that he couldn't even see it until it was almost too close to avoid. Narrowly escaping from a premature demise, he pulled away from the obstacle with all the control he could, barely avoiding crashing directly into it and decelerated to prevent a repeat offense.

Nonetheless, the obstacle–building actually–seemed familiar, so he slowed down even more and dropped altitude until the construction stood out to him. "This is…the Yokohama Landmark. How can the cloud-line be this low…?" It should be much higher than this–a whole five stories were obscured in coal dark wisps. Either way, he still had to get to KaibaCorp, but he was turned around too much to keep flying in these unnatural clouds and still remain on course. The jet dropped slowly until his vision was clear, but the view beneath the shroud was one of darkness, what little remained of the sunlight glowed an occasional dull gray in the clouds but no further. It was as though Seto had been suddenly plunged into the depths of midnight.

No, it was darker.

There were no lights, electricity fallen dead and the streets were desolate but for haphazardly abandoned cars lying empty of their passengers, cast away uselessly like cicada husks. Occasionally he would see humanoid figures moving skittishly in the darkness and other, more shadowy forms too far away from him to determine their true nature. The scratchy white noise of the radio was steady and uninterrupted─the same sound Seto recognized all too clearly from his many failed phone calls to KaibaCorp─and he switched the device's volume down lower since it was all but useless, and also a bit distracting.

With the shroud and the condition of the city as he could see so far, Seto had to consider an option that he had completely overlooked before: what if this wasn't a technological problem, but a chemical one? He clenched his jaw as the possibility sunk in; the murk could just as easily be a slowly spreading toxic cloud as some strange thunderhead, and he was doubly glad for the high-pressure seals installed on the jet. But, if that was the case, Japan itself could be…

He had to see KaibaCorp first, before turning back or anything else. Seto adjusted the jet's flight path, winding around the landmark as a guide post before turning north to Domino, speeding somewhat slower over the country as the sights flashed by. Occasionally he would see a light─though not in the form of human power like electricity as he would have hoped─of a fire burning unheeded in the dim landscape, billowing smoke that floated upward to join the hanging veil. Large shapes moved between trees and buildings, more than a few stopping in their wandering to raise their heads to the sky, following the distant path of a lone white jet. Seto's transportation was stark bright against a backdrop of black and overcast gray, a shining beacon to those below, though he did not yet realize it.

Many more than one pair of eyes followed the white streak, including one scarlet eyed gaze, marked to his rapid approach the moment their sphere of influence above Japan was pierced. By the time Seto's jet breached Domino city limits, his arrival was already expected and prepared for.

Kaiba Corporation headquarters was just as dark and foreboding as the rest of the landscape he'd seen so far, but not as much as the inky black vortex rising further on in the city, and he couldn't see a single person near the building. _Why…?_ Seto straightened up, his eyes widening as he realized the main office was not as empty as he initially thought it would be. _Things_ were moving along the surface, climbing up and across the windows, circling the silent structure on wings that should have been nothing but an impossibility. A creature whose scaled body was longer than the entire height of Kaiba Corp wound its body around the entirety of the building like a boa constrictor, massive pale purple wings folded across its back.

A loud bang and a rumble jolted Seto to attention as something crashed into the hovering craft, and he rushed to right himself as what he could only think was an impossibility clung to the hull. A monster, and a familiar one at that. Ryu-Kishin swept its claws across the surface of the cockpit for a catch, long fangs jutting from dull red skin less than two feet from Seto's face. He stared in wide-eyed shock, mind racing to put together any conclusion that wasn't what was so obviously right in front of his eyes, but his thoughts came to a screeching halt as the fiend clawed irritably at the reinforced glass with a shrill sound that made the young man's hair stand on end.

Seto reflexively yanked on the throttle in response to the sound, dislodging the monster and racing away to gain some distance, only to find that many more monsters invested every corner of the city, slowly crawling out into the open to see the streaking white beacon. In the brief window of time he had been stationary, many more winged figures filled the skies, leaving little path for escape.

Only one other thing stood out among the monsters, a silver-haired humanoid figure bearing clawed wings and a snake-like tail that flitted around its feet, standing smugly on the very roof of the Kaiba Corporation headquarters. The being stared up at the jet with a sneer spreading across its face, and Seto couldn't help but be aware of how the monsters near it were bowed in reverence, claws and heads low enough to be scraping the concrete. While the jet looped the sky, dodging flying monsters that lunged at him closer and closer, the being radiating authority stepped up to the very edge of the roof and began to speak.

From so far away, from behind a thick barrier, Seto shouldn't have been able to hear the words. But the radio he'd turned down suddenly emitted a piercing screech, which then settled into what was unmistakably a voice. "The wayward prince finally returns. Welcome Seto, to our world," The howling pursuit began to increase in the accuracy of their attacks and the pilot couldn't spare a second to try to quiet the radio. How can he…? This is impossible, this is all impossible! And still the voice didn't cease, "We've been waiting for you, Scion of Light. Come, I have a gift for you, one you have no choice but to accept."

The golden Rod the being held aloft in those bloodstained hands was all too familiar, a brilliant eye laid bare upon its surface, bringing the foreign memories he'd suppressed from Battle City resurfacing once again. Seto tightened his hands around the controls enough to hurt, using everything he had to focus on his moving surroundings and not on the visions dancing behind his eyes.

The net was closing in all around; his coming here was a trap from the start.

"Really, Seto, where's your fiery spirit? Not even going to hurl worthless insults like Honda did when we ensnared him?" What? Honda, isn't he… And it shouldn't have been a surprise to find that Yugi and his little squad were involved with this somehow, but it did not begin to explain the monsters or anything else. Nor did it explain what this thing wanted. But it was the next words out of that sneering mouth that marked the end of his flight, "Pity… Did you not inherit his spirit, the Pharaoh of the White Dragon?" Seto choked, the resulting rush of memories crashing into him with the force of a physical blow, lurching forward in his seat.

 _—Cracked earth and screams of pain, but he was silent, cradling a still form burning from within with a hidden light. The dragon shined inside as the dust cleared, and the one left standing at the end of it all plucked from the ruined ground glimmering puzzle pieces, and placed–one by one–into a golden box. A kingdom entrusted, from his Pharaoh, from his frien—_

The vision cut off in an instant as his hands smashed across the control panel, pain to drive out the phantoms in his mind. Distracted for just a few seconds too long, the jet spun out and rammed into a roaring Devil Dragon in his path, shearing off his craft's right wing with a hideous shriek of metal on scaled hide.

And just like that, it was over.

The jet spun out once again, careening through the air uncontrollably as Seto could no longer correct his flight path, and the noose suddenly snapped shut as the converging monsters descended on him all at once. They caught him in almost perfect unison, claws scrabbling for purchase on the smooth metal, tearing into and through the other wing in the process. The engines sputtered and died immediately after, then screamed as their casings were ripped from the hull by a dozen searching limbs. Monsters tore at the broken excuse for an aircraft, seeking to loosen the glass partition that was his last remaining safety net, all while the snake-tailed demon stared down at him with a pose of expected victory.

"What…are you?" Seto snarled, still not quite believing that this was what things had come down to.

"So, he does speak after all," A cold laugh, harsh and scratchy over the failing radio, "I wouldn't waste what remains of your freedom worrying about it Seto, you'll find out personally soon enough." At those words–as if on cue–a spiderweb of cracks radiated across the surface of his barrier.

 _Not yet. I refuse to give in to something like you!_ His hands found the eject switch and yanked it back furiously. At the same time that the cockpit finally gave into the beasts trying to dislodge it and disconnected, his seat rocketed into the sky far above their heads, one last trick up his sleeve in resistance. He allowed himself a moment of relief that the air pulled into his lungs didn't make him hack and cough, but there was still no indication of whether or not it would cause him any harm. But there was no time to wonder about the matter, as the pursuers turned their attention from his shredded jet and followed him, Seto cursing the thought that his escape was only a delaying tactic.

But still…there was a light.

The monsters didn't seem to notice it at first, the light in the darkness, approaching them rapidly on massive wings. Before the full realization of what Seto was seeing could sink in, the advancing star spewed forth a crackling beam of white lightning, disintegrating all those caught in its encompassing touch. Unable to even release a scream of pain, the monsters below were torn apart in an instant, blasted to particles before his very eyes. _'White lightning–!'_ Even after the blast passed, he could feel the charred ozone, and the electric static raced up his arms.

The rest of the chasing beasts dispersed before the rarest of all dragons and Seto could see his savior in all their glory.

"Blue-Eyes White Dragon…" The holograms were pale imitations to the dragon that now hovered before him, who was both larger in scale than the ones he was familiar with and glowed a pale white in the overcast sky that only accentuated the perfect hue. Every winding pale blue vein in those pulsing wings was perfectly defined, every curved claw or tooth honed to a point. The dragon's breath smelled of fire and an oppressive force seemed to air over the air around it like the low pressure of an approaching storm.

It was _glorious._

But the moment didn't last long, as the pursuing swarm wheeled around in an arc as they composed themselves for an attack, and Seto could see clawed hands clench in fury around the golden Rod as the assault began in earnest. Without hesitation, the Blue-Eyes threw out a claw and plucked him from the air, twisting its head around and erupting up another blast of electricity that sent another dozen beasts straight to an early grave. With the seat straps coming apart around the scaly grip, Seto wrapped his arms around the shell, feeling the throbbing pulse of heat from underneath his hands. If he wasn't in midst of an aerial attack, hounded on all sides by the inconceivable notion of duel monsters brought to life, he could've spent a long time studying the object of his admiration.

As it was, the white dragon was taking the opportunity to make good their escape, blasting apart the rogue enemy that dared to get in their way, and making haste to somewhere far from the Kaiba tower and the Rod high atop it. But Seto could see the gargantuan serpent wrapped around the building beginning to unravel, slowly uncoiling from its resting position to spread equally huge wings into the air, a rain of shattered glass windows falling from the sky with every move it made. It was slow to rouse, but it wouldn't be long before that behemoth was chasing them as well.

The Blue-Eyes didn't stop or look back, pulling in those wings close to accelerate until the tower disappeared into the distance behind them. Barely a minute had passed before the dragon was diving, losing altitude rapidly until its hind legs were so close to the asphalt road that they were almost skidding across the surface. The the shining beast paused just for a moment, letting Seto drop to the ground a few feet below, before zooming back into the open sky with now empty talons pulled close to its chest. He thought for a moment to shout back to it, only to duck into a deeply shadowed alley for cover as a shadow fell across the sky and dwarfed the Blue-Eyes at its heel.

It was the huge serpentine beast from before, diving after the white dragon in chase, following it out of sight as the pale monster's outstretched tail trailed for ages across the horizon until long after its quarry was out of sight. Was the Blue-Eyes using itself as bait…to protect him? And that was jarring enough up top of seeing the white dragon appear so suddenly, only to vanish again like dust on the wind. Whether it was his own desires, the impossibility of the living dragon, those visions dropping uninvited into his mind, or a combination of all three, in no way did Seto view the Blue-Eyes' departure as a good thing.

But, there was also the immediate problem: What now?

Kaiba Corporation was decimated; there was no denying that the empty skeleton that was what remained of his company was rotten from the infestation of–and there was no denying now that they were real–monsters. Any of his employees that happened to be inside the headquarters at the time wouldn't have stood a chance; with how widespread this madness had advanced, there was an all-too-real possibility that Kaiba Corp. no longer existed within Japan, and the fate of his employees was grim at best. This–the true hub of all their operations–and the connections formed there, spelled the doom of the Kaiba empire and everything that they had created. And that was the breaking point…everything he built, worked for so many years was now lying in tatters under a black sky, without a piece of explanation. So many years of pain, of sacrifice…for this?

 _The sick feeling rose up behind his teeth, before being forced down. That numbness and pain was buried deep, and one day soon he would be forced to face it, but not now._

Everything was gone and he was alone. Seto had confidence in his desolation before (though something inside had been shaken at times, by alliances on rooftops and the long dead sentimentality of a man who bore his face), when he had the power of what he built and Mokuba at his side. Now though…

His radio was gone, and even if he did still have it on him, no signals could pass through the clouds as anything other than white noise. He'd proven that the moment he'd flown beyond the barrier (he should've turned back right then, and gone straight back to Isono before reaching Domino), and now Mokuba would think he was missing in action along with everyone else in this country.

The Blue-Eyes was gone, presumably leading a living colossus on some wild goose chase, and no amount of following on foot would reunite them unless his rescuer chose to return.

There was one other path left to take, and it was one that creature holding that golden item had mentioned personally, even if it wasn't the conclusion he was intended to have drawn. That monster in particular was hunting them, he'd admitted it all too readily, and had uncountable swarms and who knows what else at his beck and call. But if one of Yugi's little squadmates were involved, then so was he.

It always came back to Yugi in the end.

The gamer, his rival, and that Puzzle they never stopped talking about. Every time some absurd magical situation ruined his tight-knit world, Yugi was involved in some way (or to blame for it, the spiteful part of him appended) and if there was anyone in Japan that knew the why of all of this it would be him.

Seto finally stepped out of the alleyway, eyes scanning the surrounding streets for any more threats (it was just textbook caution, he told himself, as he wouldn't admit to the undercurrent of nervousness), and greeted to a silent street cast in dark gray. His coat was torn and ragged around the middle and ends, a side-effect of the Blue-Eyes' claws and the forced ejection, and he ripped out the useless receiver in his collar as it spewed mindless static. The reminder of that voice speaking directly into his jet through the radio inspired Seto to go one step further and crush the piece of tech under his heel in fury. He couldn't stomach his own creations being manipulated like that again, even at the cost of destroying them.

Thankfully, he still recognized where he was in Domino–though further north than he would like–and could use that knowledge to find the Kame Game shop, and move on from there. Reoriented, and with a clear goal in mind, Seto took one last uncertain glance in the direction where the white dragon had flown, and started walking.

* * *

 **–Subway Line, Domino–**

They ran, ran from their collapsing lives and those who were left behind, and the roars that faded into echoes after the fact. Jounouchi saw it all too clearly, that regretful smile and the surrender that it entailed, and only the instinctual need to get Yugi and Anzu to safety stopped him him from expelling what was left in his stomach. It was sickening, how easily the Spirit tore them apart and–though he hadn't thought to say it aloud–Jounouchi couldn't help but think that he was somehow to blame.

He knew…knew Honda the best, he should have seen what he was going to do, _should have stopped him!_ The fact that he'd saved them by closing that door didn't completely stick in his mind, and even then, what Jounouchi wanted was them to stick together no matter what. Even if he acknowledged the why of his actions, it couldn't excuse them, no matter what words of logic he tried to use to explain it away. He counted on Honda to watch his back whenever it counted, to watch after them as he promised to so many times before, but not like this–never like this. He should have been watching closer, should have noticed something was wrong after the incident on the stairs, and found another way together!

Too much had been lost already! The Other Yugi was gone to who knows where, if he was even around at all, and–with everything else they had already witnessed–Bakura might not be in one piece either. One alone was too many, Honda didn't need to tear him apart any further.

It was only after Yugi tugged on his arm that Jounouchi realized he was shaking, the beginning of yet more tears peaking on his face that he couldn't hold back, and turned roughly to find himself seeing shell-shocked faces that mirrored most of what he was feeling. "Yugi…I, I couldn't…"

"It's not your fault…" Yugi was insistent, but the pain–and stubborn, self-inflicted guilt–refused to go away. He couldn't help but think that maybe things would have gone different, but Honda was always so difficult, so set in his chosen path. "There's still…still a chance," The boy continued, trying anything in his power to raise Jounouchi's spirits, though even the densest observation could see how forced his words were, how even he didn't fully believe them. As Yugi's consoling words came apart at the seams and broke, Anzu held his shoulders with hands that trembled just as much and offered her support in the only way she could. And yet, somewhere underneath the turmoil of guilt, pain, and anger that this mess had landed them all in, some part of Jounouchi was still musing on that unknown possibility: how does one manage to kill a demon? The demon in the sarcophagus, and the spirit who won his twisted game and placed all this into motion…there had to be some way to make them undone.

It was despair that ruled him now, but hate that urged him onward. Jounouchi still at his core, held himself responsible for what had happened, but he also knew full well who set this all into motion. He was not the type of person for murder, for cold-blooded killing, but after everything that happened–and would continue to happen if somebody didn't step up to stop it–he would like nothing more than to end that demon once and for all.

But there were still so many left, friends and family who he couldn't let fall to the same fate. Jounouchi didn't want to see the echoes of his oldest friend's surrender ever again, not in anybody or any where. "We…we have to do something," Before his friends could ask him the inevitable questions, Jounouchi surged onward before his voice cracked once again, "What about Gramps? Everyone from school…? We have to help them!"

The outcry was immediate: Anzu's parents and Yugi's grandfather and mother were still needing help from the rising surge of madness they shouldn't be involved in (and Jounouchi's own father as well, and despite all his enmity and pain, family was still family). And who knew how much of Japan was affected by that point? Beyond the school and Domino residents, how far had the monsters spread? Tokyo? Farther? Was his sister in danger too? When the flickering lights of the subway lights gave way to the darkened streets of Domino, leaving both a literal and figurative bright side behind in those tunnels, Jounouchi barely managed to keep his rising panic under control–though not his grief and anxiety for those he hadn't yet found.

Anzu's parents were the closest, the first stop on the worst adventure they'd ever undertaken, and hopefully the first of many they could save.

No more broken hearts, and more than anything else, no more sacrifices.


End file.
